5 Things I’ve Learned About Having a Cat

My boyfriend and I adopted our very first cat that either of us have ever had. We have both grown up with having dogs in our household so we sort of assumed that owning a two-month-old kitten would be the same as owning a two-month-old puppy. Oh boy were we wrong! No movie, show, or video could prepare us first hand on what was to come, so here are five things I’ve learned about owning a cat.

1.) They are little daredevils.

Imagine the look on my face as I watched my two-month-old kitten scale her way to the top of the dresser and jump off with ease. I wasn’t sure what to think. Do I call the vet? Do I approve? Little did I know that this was just the beginning of what was to come. Ino spend most of her day leaping from our furniture or racing through our apartment. I could never imagine my dog jumping on anything, he is so mellow and stiff like.

Speaking of my dog Mister was four years old whenever we adopted Ino but that never stopped her from showing Mister just how fierce she is. She is small but has no problem with keeping up with Mister, she even sends him running sometimes haha! I used to look at my little kitten like she was this fragile creature but now I never question her ability to stand up on her own. Ino’s crazy daredevil personality earned her the nickname wild child when we first got her. So whenever you see the cute little kid who’s on TV, just remember don’t always trust what you see, they're wilder then you think!

2.) They don’t give a frick about anything.

You come home from work and your dog reacts. You yell at your dog and they react. You try to love your dog and they react. My cat does not give a frick about anything or anyone (most of the time). Whenever we adopted Ino all I wanted was for her to love to be cuddled with me, but instead I got a cat who loves judging me from a distance. I thought I’d never look out and find another pet as stubborn as Mister (can you feel the sarcasm?) It doesn’t matter what we say Ino doesn’t care at all.

I find myself repeating the same phrases and commands constantly throughout the day and usually her reaction to this is to just look at me like I’m some foreign object. Our current situation is Ino destroying the carpet that is underneath the door. We have tried everything! The thing that drives me insane about the whole thing though is that whenever we yell at Ino to stop biting the carpet she stops and turns to looks at us and then continues to bite the carpet anyway! Cats really push your buttons from time to time but deep, deep, deep down they are loving compassionate animals.

3.) They come alive at night.

Whenever 11 o’clock rolls around our little family gets into bed and plans to fall asleep. We are all usually able to fall asleep for about 2 to 3 hours until Ino emerges from her slumber and turns into some possessed creature who feeds off the darkness of the night. I have heard from friends that their cats have acted similar to this in the past but I thought that it was because their cats had spunky personalities, but nope there’s more to it. It never occurred to me that even after sleeping almost all day she could have so much energy what’s the sun goes down. You would think I would be able to put two and two together but nope I was clueless! So what exactly do I mean whenever I say that Ino comes alive at night?

You can kind of see it start to happen, she starts to tuck her ears back and her pupils grow to the size of nickels. She will begin to run around the bedroom at full speed. She runs over our bodies and steps on our faces! If we even look in her direction she will arch her back and flee in the opposite direction. She throws her toys around which usually causes me to wake up because her toys end up knocking things down or she slams into things trying to catch them. If you are looking to adopt a cat in the future be aware that your kitty may turn into a night demon! Although these little episodes can get annoying sometimes they can also be pretty funny! I do find that playing with Ino before bed does cut down on the amount of time she is awake and even some days she sleeps throughout the night.

4.) You can take the Kitty out of the Wild ,but you can’t take the Wild out of the Kitty

It was the night before Christmas ,we came back to the house to find Ino under the Christmas tree with a dead mouse! I will never forget the night you know that her first kill. The last thing I was expecting to see when we got home that night was our little three-month-old kitten playing with a dead mouse under the Christmas tree. It was the most demonic thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

She had small toys that resembled mice so our first reaction was to take a picture or record a video because at first it was adorable. My boyfriend questioned the situation and everything just went downhill when he pointed out the fact that we never opened up the pack of GRAY mice. Getting closer we realized that it was a poor mouse whose dead body was being thrown around on our Santa Claus tree skirt. This was just the beginning of Ino’s killing spree.

Since we lived so close to a field and the woods we would often have a little mice visitors. We were using humane traps to try to capture the mice because we never had any intentions of killing them. I don’t know why I forgot that cats kill mice but it never occurred to me that my cat would kill one. There would be mornings that I’d wake up and see Ino with a dead mouse on the floor right next to me! Okay so I’m the type of person who has love for all animals, but there was a part of me that was impressed with how well Ino’s hunting skills were considering her age and spending all of her life indoors.

It always amazes me to see how mature kittens can be compared to other baby animals, and even humans! What three month old baby do you know that can properly hunt down a mouse? Ino is domesticated but her instincts are incredible and you can see the thrill of the hunt in her eyes. Mister on the other hand laid there and allowed the mouse to walk all over his head and didn’t react at all. I guess you could take the kitty out of the wild but you can’t take the wild out of the kitty.

5.) Cats make life more enjoyable.

So as I said before I grew up without a cat and I’ll be honest I didn’t think that I was missing out on anything but whenever we adopted Ino everything changed. Ino brought a little light into our world just when everything started getting dark. Yes we had Mister but having Ino at such a young age allowed my boyfriend and I to care for something which gave us a new sense of purpose. Even today Ino continues to bring that light whenever she puts a smile on our faces or gives us little kisses on our nose.

Although she has an attitude problem and keeps us on our toes, she truly makes our life more enjoyable.